Cant Find The Exit

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Do you write long ass stories without end? The shit LOVECRAFT is famous for? Its like the writer wanders around in a dark stadium and cant find the fuggin exit.

I'm reading 2 John O'Hara novels and he did the same bloviating. One chapter, in particular, is about a woman who needs a good lawyer to defend her cousin who murdered his wife and her lover. The lawyer refuses and advises the woman to fuck off. The woman then goes to his wife and spills the beans on their daughter who's fucking every boy in town. The wife orders the woman outta the house and summons her lawyer husband for a briefing. Hubby agrees to help the killer.

I estimate there's a good 1500 words in it, start to finish, but O'Hara uses it for marathon navel-gazing for Ma to contemplate how she'll make Sis pull her drawers up and tend to her knitting and the wonders of modern times for girls circa 1910. Ma then recalls the girls she knew who had babies soon after marriage to moronic men with big dongs. Cocks should be assessed like shoes! It goes on forever, like a LOVECRAFT story.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well two immensely popular authors by the names of King and Anne Rice can't find the exit, Rice more so than King. Rice's 'naval gazing' can go on for hundreds of pages-just read Mayfair Witches'

The only difference between the two is that when King is done self indulging he delivers chills and a climax, Rice's climaxes are always let downs so its a lot of reading for little pay off.

Neither seems to be hurting for sales however.

You're a minimalist, JB, not everyone is.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Kings early stuff kept its shoulder to the wheel then he got lost in the old hotel with THE SHINING, where no door was an exit. By IT he was loose in a world with no exits. Cutting 600 pages would make it twice better.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm all for succinct and not trying to make the short story form a novel form, but from the high number of "this should continue" and "looking forward to chapter two" comments Literotica readers slap on stories here, verbosity has its readership here--and rewards it. So I can see why folks do it here to get out Literotica what they want.

 

[lovecraft68]

Kings early stuff kept its shoulder to the wheel then he got lost in the old hotel with THE SHINING, where no door was an exit. By IT he was loose in a world with no exits. Cutting 600 pages would make it twice better.

I think the defining example was the Stand. Already an 800 page work-that was good, but dragged at points, they released an 1100 page version with all the stuff the editors cut out.

There was a reason, the extended version was like watching paint dry.

 

[oggbashan]

I don't have that problem because I know the ending before I start the story.

My characters can wander around in the middle, leaving me with an incomplete mess that needs drastic revision if the ending is to fit.

 

[R. Richard]

I'm just finishing the 20th novel in my Second Chance series. There's, at present, no exit. I keep having my protagonist solve problems, only to run into yet more problems. (By the way, my protagonist is functionally immortal, so time is not a factor here.)

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think the defining example was the Stand. Already an 800 page work-that was good, but dragged at points, they released an 1100 page version with all the stuff the editors cut out.

There was a reason, the extended version was like watching paint dry.

I'm reading William Faulkners FLAGS IN THE DUST, everyone in the world rejected it till one publisher bought it and cut 40K then sold it as SARTORIS.

The prose is sublime at times but there's no rhyme nor reason to any of it. It starts with an old man sitting on his porch looking at the business end of a rifle, the next scene is 1000 miles away, scene 3 is 50 years later, and scene 4 is a nigger remembering the white pussy he got in France during the war. His next novel, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, is worse for the loose associations. Faulkner said he was after the way people really think. And I say novels aren't psychiatric transcripts of patient blabber.

 

[karaline]

Kings early stuff kept its shoulder to the wheel then he got lost in the old hotel with THE SHINING, where no door was an exit. By IT he was loose in a world with no exits. Cutting 600 pages would make it twice better.

Does the success of a writer reflect how verbose he or she is? I know The Harry Potter series backwards, (not through choice -more because my kids listened to the audio books obsessively) and it seems to me the more famous JK Rowling got the more lengthy and detailed her books became. Perhaps her publishers and editors had less sway as she got more popular.

Also, I have wondered whether uploading stories in infrequent instalments has effected the contents of my work. With my next tale I'm trying to get the whole thing written and edited before I start uploading it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Does the success of a writer reflect how verbose he or she is? I know The Harry Potter series backwards, (not through choice -more because my kids listened to the audio books obsessively) and it seems to me the more famous JK Rowling got the more lengthy and detailed her books became. Perhaps her publishers and editors had less sway as she got more popular.

Also, I have wondered whether uploading stories in infrequent instalments has effected the contents of my work. With my next tale I'm trying to get the whole thing written and edited before I start uploading it.

I think that when they reach a level of success they start doing whatever they want and the editors are either afraid to cut them or they just figure that its going to sell no matter what at this point so why bother?

Speaking of verbose....I sat down a couple of months ago and started to read Martin's Game of Thrones books...

Holy shit this guy could turn someone cutting their toe nails into 250 pages and have each toe nail get their own chapter....wow....

I give props to the directors of the show in weeding through that to decide what they want to put.

Unfortunately that show I think has been the end of the actual books. Martin has no clue when the next one will be done, meanwhile he lives eats breathes and sleeps all the hype the show is getting and is working on other show ideas with HBO....

 

[someoneyouknow]

Well two immensely popular authors by the names of King and Anne Rice can't find the exit, Rice more so than King. Rice's 'naval gazing' can go on for hundreds of pages-just read Mayfair Witches'

The only difference between the two is that when King is done self indulging he delivers chills and a climax, Rice's climaxes are always let downs so its a lot of reading for little pay off.

Neither seems to be hurting for sales however.

You're a minimalist, JB, not everyone is.

THANK YOU!!! I thought I was the only person who wondered when King was going to get to the point. I can't remember the one, and only, book of his I read, the one where the woman is strapped to the bed in a cabin and the guy had died on top of her, but it became a personal quest to slog through page after page of flashbacks and hallucinations just to claim I finished it.

Rice I can somewhat forgive since she is/was trying to give some back story to her characters, but King, for all his supposed renowned, no, not gonna happen.

 

[lovecraft68]

THANK YOU!!! I thought I was the only person who wondered when King was going to get to the point. I can't remember the one, and only, book of his I read, the one where the woman is strapped to the bed in a cabin and the guy had died on top of her, but it became a personal quest to slog through page after page of flashbacks and hallucinations just to claim I finished it.

Rice I can somewhat forgive since she is/was trying to give some back story to her characters, but King, for all his supposed renowned, no, not gonna happen.

Hmm, not sure I read that one...was it Rose Madder? I gave up on him after Insomnia which was the cure for said disease and proves the point of the discussion....I am sure he has done some good stuff since, but I just don't have that time to invest these days.

Rice...I enjoy her 'histories" the origin of the vampires, the family tree of the Mayfair witches...problem I have with her is...her climaxes are always let downs and she falls in love with her characters mid stream and alters her books accordingly.

Example Lasher being the evil being in The Witches books, but somehow it shifts to he is okay, but some little girl has to die.

The worst was Ramses the Damned (The Mummy) It was okay Ramses was living in the present, just fine because he was hot and fucking the female lead, but for some reason never explained Cleopatra just had to be stopped because she would change history....

But when I was younger I would read anything horror related and did read most of her books until....Memnoch the devil....oh...don't get me started

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Does the success of a writer reflect how verbose he or she is? I know The Harry Potter series backwards, (not through choice -more because my kids listened to the audio books obsessively) and it seems to me the more famous JK Rowling got the more lengthy and detailed her books became. Perhaps her publishers and editors had less sway as she got more popular.

Also, I have wondered whether uploading stories in infrequent instalments has effected the contents of my work. With my next tale I'm trying to get the whole thing written and edited before I start uploading it.

There's a niche for every writer.

I've been chasing the elusive unicorn for a long time, and my solitary Red H is for a 4500 word tale about a young man who fucks his older workmate 3 times. Readers love it. Took me 10 minutes to write it. Go figure.

I suspect hardcore fanatics savor every comma and period their writers publish. I'm that way about Raymond Chandler. His worst pulp crap rules! If LeCaRRE published a 1000 page book of George Smiley farting it wouldn't be enough for me.

I found regular series installments kill views. Let some time pass between submissions. A month. That is, give readers some time to miss you.

 

[someoneyouknow]

Hmm, not sure I read that one...was it Rose Madder? I gave up on him after Insomnia which was the cure for said disease and proves the point of the discussion....I am sure he has done some good stuff since, but I just don't have that time to invest these days.

Rice...I enjoy her 'histories" the origin of the vampires, the family tree of the Mayfair witches...problem I have with her is...her climaxes are always let downs and she falls in love with her characters mid stream and alters her books accordingly.

Example Lasher being the evil being in The Witches books, but somehow it shifts to he is okay, but some little girl has to die.

The worst was Ramses the Damned (The Mummy) It was okay Ramses was living in the present, just fine because he was hot and fucking the female lead, but for some reason never explained Cleopatra just had to be stopped because she would change history....

But when I was younger I would read anything horror related and did read most of her books until....Memnoch the devil....oh...don't get me started

I had to look it up but it's Gerald's Game and she was handcuffed, not strapped, to the bed.

I only read Rice's works up to The Tale of the Body Thief. I don't think I finished it. Fortunately I had borrowed it so I wasn't out any money.

I do remember reading Rice's adult books (again borrowed).

I'm one of those who, while having what some might consider an active imagination, doesn't scare easily when reading horror or watching movies.